1840 in music
Encyclopedia
Events
- February 11 – Gaetano DonizettiGaetano DonizettiDomenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. - June 9 – Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
gives the first piano recitalRecitalA recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
, in London's Hanover Square RoomsHanover Square RoomsThe Hanover Square Rooms or the Queen's Concert Rooms were assembly rooms established, principally for musical performances, on the corner of Hanover Square, London, by Sir John Gallini in partnership with Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel in 1774. For exactly one century this was the...
. - Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's "year of song", in which he writes the two LiederkreisSong cycleA song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
, Frauenliebe und -lebenFrauenliebe und -lebenFrauenliebe und -leben is a cycle of poems by Adelbert von Chamisso, written in 1830. They describe the course of a woman's love for her man, from her point of view, from first meeting through marriage to his death, and after. Selections were set to music as a song-cycle by masters of German Lied,...
and DichterliebeDichterliebeDichterliebe, 'The Poet's Love' , is the best-known song cycle of Robert Schumann . The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich Heine, composed 1822–1823, published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert , those of...
. He also marries Clara WieckClara SchumannClara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
. - The first harmoniumHarmoniumA harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
is built. - Schindler'sAnton Felix SchindlerAnton Felix Schindler was an associate, secretary, and early biographer of Ludwig van Beethoven.His Life of Beethoven was first published in 1840 and, in its subsequently expanded form , had a great deal of influence on later Beethoven biography...
biography of Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
is published. - Michele CarafaMichele CarafaMichele Enrico Carafa di Colobrano was an Italian opera composer. He was born in Naples and studied in Paris with Luigi Cherubini. He was Professor of counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire from 1840 to 1858...
becomes Professor of Counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire. - Édouard BatisteÉdouard BatisteÉdouard Batiste was a French composer and organist. He was born and died in Paris.While studying at the Imperial Conservatoire as a teenager, he won prizes in solfège, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and organ...
and François BazinFrançois BazinFrançois Emmanuel Joseph Bazin was a well-known French opera composer during the nineteenth century. His works are not widely performed today.-Biography:...
share the Prix de RomePrix de RomeThe Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
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Popular music
- Henry RussellHenry Russell (musician)Henry Russell was an English pianist, baritone singer and composer, born into a distinguished Jewish family.-Biography:...
(music) & Eliza Cook (lyrics) – "The Old Arm Chair" - Robert Lucas de PearsallRobert Lucas de PearsallRobert Lucas Pearsall was an English composer.-Biography:Pearsall was born at Clifton in Bristol on 14 March 1795 into a rich, Quaker family. His father, Richard Pearsall , was an army officer and amateur musician...
– "Lay a garlandLay a garland"Lay a garland" is a popular English madrigal composition in E major. It was written by Robert Lucas de Pearsall on 4 June 1840 and is scored for two sopranos, two altos, two tenors and two basses or as it is more commonly written SSAATTBB. The piece is based on a poem from the play a The Maid's...
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Classical music
- Felix MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
– Symphony No. 2 in B Flat Major, "Lobgesang"Symphony No. 2 (Mendelssohn)The Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, op. 52, called the "Lobgesang" Symphony, was composed by Felix Mendelssohn. It was written in 1840 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the invention of printing, along with the less-known Festgesang "Gutenberg Cantata".The composer's description of the work... - Louis SpohrLouis SpohrLouis Spohr was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Born Ludewig Spohr, he is usually known by the French form of his name. Described by Dorothy Mayer as "The Forgotten Master", Spohr was once as famous as Beethoven. As a violinist, his virtuoso playing was admired by Queen Victoria...
– Symphony no 6 in G major, Op. 116 "Historical"
Opera
- Gaetano DonizettiGaetano DonizettiDomenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
– "La FavoriteLa favoriteLa favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
" and La Fille du Régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment) - Albert LortzingAlbert LortzingGustav Albert Lortzing was a German composer, actor and singer. He is considered to be the main representative of the German Spieloper, a form similar to the French opéra comique, which grew out of the Singspiel.-Biography:Lortzing was born in Berlin to Johann Gottlieb Lortzing and Charlotte Sophie...
– Hans Sachs - Temistocle SoleraTemistocle SoleraTemistocle Solera was an Italian opera composer and librettist.He was born at Ferrara. He received his education at the Imperial College in Vienna and at the University of Pavia. Throughout his life he actively participated in anti-Austrian resistance. At one point, he was incarcerated for his...
– Ildegonda - Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
– Un giorno di regno
Births
- January 18 – Ernst RudorffErnst RudorffErnst Friedrich Karl Rudorff was a German composer and music teacher.Born in Berlin, Rudorff studied piano under Woldemar Bargiel from 1852 to 1857, before enrolling at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1859, where he studied under Ignaz Moscheles, Louis Plaidy, and Julius Rietz. He was also a private...
, composer and music teacher (d. 1918) - February 2 – Louis-Albert Bourgault-DucoudrayLouis-Albert Bourgault-DucoudrayLouis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray was a French Breton composer, pianist, and professor of music history/theory at the Conservatoire de Paris as well as a Prix de Rome laureate. He was born at Nantes and died at Vernouillet, near Dreux...
, pianist and composer (d. 1910) - February 12 – Philippe DeckerPhilippe DeckerPhilippe Decker was a Luxembourgian composer and conductor.-References:...
, conductor and composer (d. 1881) - March 8 – Franco FaccioFranco FaccioFranco Faccio was an Italian composer and conductor.-Biography:Born in Verona, Faccio became known as a conductor of Verdi's music. He studied music at the Milan Conservatory where he was a pupil of Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti...
, conductor and composer (d. 1891) - April 12 – Franz Xaver HaberlFranz Xaver HaberlFranz Xaver Haberl was a German musicologist, friend of Liszt, Perosi, and Singenberger, cleric, and student of Proske....
, musicologist (d. 1910) - May 7 – Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, composer (d. 1893) - May 9 – Blanche d'AntignyBlanche d'AntignyBlanche d'Antigny was a French singer and actress whose fame today rests chiefly on the fact that Émile Zola used her as the principal model for his novel Nana.-History:...
, singer and actress (d. 1874) - August 1 – Franz Simandl, double-bassist and teacher (d. 1912)
- August 28 – Ira D. SankeyIra D. SankeyIra D. Sankey , known as The Sweet Singer of Methodism, was an American gospel singer and composer, associated with evangelist Dwight L...
, gospel singer and composer (d. 1908) - September 14 – George WhitingGeorge WhitingGeorge Elbridge Whiting was an American composer of classical music.-Early life and career:Born in Holliston, Massachusetts, he founded the Beethoven Society in Hartford, Connecticut when he was fifteen years old. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1862 and later to New York City. Whiting was a...
, composer (d. 1923) - September 30 – Johan SvendsenJohan SvendsenJohan Severin Svendsen was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania , Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark....
, violinist, conductor and composer (d. 1911) - October 18 – Roberto StagnoRoberto StagnoRoberto Stagno , was a prominent Italian opera tenor. He became an important interpreter of verismo music when it burst on to the operatic scene during the 1890s; but he also possessed an agile bel canto technique which he employed in operas dating from earlier periods...
, operatic tenor (d. 1897) - November – Célestine MariéCélestine MariéCélestine Galli-Marié was a French mezzo-soprano most famous for creating the title role in the opera Carmen.-Career:...
, operatic mezzo-soprano, the original Carmen (d. 1905) - December 7 – Hermann GoetzHermann GoetzHermann Gustav Goetz was a German composer.After studying in Berlin, he moved to Switzerland in 1863. After ten years spent as a critic, pianist and conductor as well, he spent the last three years of his life composing...
, composer (d. 1876) - December 17 – C. F. E. Horneman, composer (d. 1906)
Deaths
- March 20 – Anton Friedrich Justus ThibautAnton Friedrich Justus ThibautAnton Friedrich Justus Thibaut , was a German jurist and musician.-Early life:He was born at Hamelin, in Hanover, the son of an officer in the Hanoverian army, of French Huguenot descent...
, lawyer and musician (b. 1772) - May 1 – Giuditta GrisiGiuditta GrisiGiuditta Grisi was an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano, sister of soprano Giulia Grisi and cousin of ballerina Carlotta Grisi....
, operatic mezzo-soprano (b. 1805) - May 10 – Catterino CavosCatterino CavosCatterino Albertovich Cavos , born Catarino Camillo Cavos, was an Italian composer, organist and conductor settled in Russia...
, organist, conductor and composer (b. 1775) - May 25 – Nikolai LavrovNikolai LavrovLavrov, Nikolai Vladimirovich was a well-known Russian baritone opera singer.He sang in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre. He possessed a voice of beautiful timbre and wide range, and was especially famous for his roles in the operas Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Zampa by Louis Herold and...
, operatic baritone (b. 1802) - May 27 – Niccolò PaganiniNiccolò PaganiniNiccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
, violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and composerComposerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
(b. 1782) - June 16 – Joseph KreutzerJoseph KreutzerJoseph Kreutzer was a German violinist, composer, and conductor. His compositions consisted mostly of chamber music and instructive pieces for bowed strings and guitar...
, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1790) - November 19 – Johann Michael VoglJohann Michael VoglJohann Michael Vogl , was an Austrian baritone singer and composer. Though famous in his day, he is remembered mainly for his close professional relationship and friendship with composer Franz Schubert....
, singer and composer (b. 1768) - date unknown
- Jules-Joseph Godefroid, harpist and composer (b. 1811)
- Nikolai LavrovNikolai LavrovLavrov, Nikolai Vladimirovich was a well-known Russian baritone opera singer.He sang in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre. He possessed a voice of beautiful timbre and wide range, and was especially famous for his roles in the operas Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Zampa by Louis Herold and...
, operatic baritone (b. 1802) - Wojciech Adalbert ŻywnyWojciech Adalbert ZywnyWojciech Żywny was a Czech pianist, violinist, teacher and composer. He was Frédéric Chopin's first professional piano teacher.- Life :Żywny was a pupil of Jan Kuchař....
, pianist and violinist, teacher of Chopin (b. 1756)